Program Overview

Graduate Studies in Computational Linguistics

The master's degree program in computational linguistics is an intensive two-year program that prepares students for mastery in the field, whether they want to work in industry or pursue their PhD.

Program Overview

The computational linguistics training at Brandeis enables both initial success and satisfying long-term careers in this burgeoning field. Students will find their skills in demand in a variety of areas, including:

• Speech recognition
• Artificial intelligence
• Machine translation
• Big data
• Automated text analysis
• Web search

Why Brandeis for Computational Linguistics?

As a student in this program, you will benefit from individualized teaching, advising, and mentoring as you deepen your skills in computational linguistics. The program offers extensive career support and networking opportunities, and you'll have access to a broad community of alumni.

Careers and Alumni

Computational linguistics graduates enjoy a very high placement rate in both industry jobs and PhD programs. Alumni working in industry focus on areas such as:

• Speech recognition
• Natural language understanding
• Robotics and artificial intelligence
• Machine translation
• Healthcare
• Call center analytics
• Internet search
• Financial services
• Cloud computing A smaller but significant portion of alumni go on to top PhD programs and academic careers in computational linguistics, computer science, and linguistics, at universities including Brandeis, Tufts University, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Washington.

Curriculum

The curriculum is designed to progressively prepare students for a successful long-term career in computational linguistics. The first-year curriculum is tailored to the level of the students entering the program, allowing students to establish a strong foundation in both computer science and linguistics. In the second year, students take advanced courses in computational linguistics, as well as courses on applied or theoretically oriented topics within computational linguistics, natural language processing, computer science, and linguistics. For-credit internships are available and encouraged, with direct help from faculty. Opportunities are also available to be involved in computational linguistics research labs. The program culminates in a semester- or year-long internship, capstone project, or master's thesis.

Financial Aid and Scholarship Support

All students are highly qualified for the program and receive a merit scholarship award that is renewed for their second year as long as they remain in good academic standing. For information about the cost of this program, please refer to the Cost of Attendance calculator. There is no additional application required to be considered for merit scholarships. Students may also consider working as a research assistant or a teaching assistant.

Application Requirements

The application requirements can be found on the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences website.

Program Details

• Program Length: Two years
• Credits: 12 course credits + thesis or internship
• Entry Term: Fall only
• Cost of Attendance: Calculator
• Application Deadline: Priority deadline of January 15. Applications will be considered after this date on a space-available basis, but no later than April 1.